General Help

[alanbee]

Hi,
I would appreciate help on the following, I am new to FS and by my very nature am trying to jump in and do something with the big jets!!

* IFR or VFR whats the difference in simple terms and what's the best to use?

* When I pushback, I cannot turn the aircraft to steer it along the taxi path, I expected to twist the rudder on my Saitek joystick and it would turn?

* Whats the best view/key combination to give a decent spot view so I can taxi along the progression line.

Sorry if these are a bit basic but like I say I am very new and impatient to get in the air. I am using FSX

Thanks

Alan

[jwenting]

IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules, VFR for Visual Flight Rules.
Airliners always fly IFR by law, light aircraft usually fly VFR, weather allowing.
Business aircraft do either depending on where and when they fly.

IFR is always under positive ATC control, VFR usually is not (though depending on where you fly you may have to report and obey ATC).

If either were implicitly "better" for all conditions, the other wouldn't exist.

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To turn on pushback, press 1 or 2 (depending on whether you want to turn left or right) directly after pressing Shift-P to start the pushback.

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Remap your external view controls to not provide a locked view but allow free rotation around the aircraft. I never understood why the defaults are as they are, they're pretty much useless.

[alanbee]

Thanks for that, could you advise on remapping the external views. Not sure how to do it.

Thanks

[jwenting]

check the options menu. There is a control settings option there (options->settings->controls).
The dialog is pretty much self explinatory. Remap everything in the "views" category from "snap" to "pan" modes, if you have a hatswitch on your stick make sure that's mapped to "view (pan)" or something like that.

[alanbee]

Thanks I will try that.
Another couple of questions I wouls appreciate help on:

* for the 737 800 aircraft what should the climb and decent rates be and at what air speed?

* when I fly ILS and come into final approach, ATC says something like turn left 120 and fly the ILS ***. What do I turn on to be guided in?

Thanks

[jwenting]

You should really start out with the tutorials. Just hopping in and flailing around will only frustrate you into abandoning FS (it has done so to many).

Climb and descent rates depend on weather conditions, aircraft weight, etc. etc.
ATC tells you to turn to a specific heading and use that to intercept the ILS beam.

[CPSBruce]

I am new to FS and by my very nature am trying to jump in and do something with the big jets!!

Flying is a learned skill, you can't just jump into a 737 and fly the ILS, which is part of an instrument rating. Start taking lessons with the Cessna, you'll find Rod Machado (http://www.rodmachado.com) is an excellent instructor. After you get your solo certificate, you'll get into more advanced things like stalls and steep angle turns. Once you've got the basics down, then you start on the instrument lessons. If you simply dive into jets, you'll probably become frustrated enough to delete FS entirely.